Contributions of Finland to the preparation of the study on the participation of the persons with disabilities in political and public life.
Question 1. Are there any restrictions on the right of persons with disabilities to vote and be elected? If so, what are those restrictions?
Section 2 of the Finnish Election Act (714/1998) provides that in Finland every Finnish citizen who has reached the age of 18 is equally entitled to vote.
A person under guardianship cannot be a candidate in elections. The provisions to this effect are laid down in the Constitution and the Municipality of Residence Act.
Persons with disabilities stand occasionally as candidates in elections. Challenges for persons with disabilities in elections include problems with unobstructed access to meeting facilities and the accessibility of information needed in positions of trust. The national disability
policy programme (2010-2015) contains a number of measures to improve the inclusion of persons with disabilities. Examples of these include measures to ensure the accessibility of polling stations and to cater for the needs for electronic voting.
Question 2. What are the steps taken by your country to ensure that persons with disabilities participate in political and public life?
Parliamentary elections 2011
For the parliamentary elections in 2011, both the election guide and the list of candidates were available in Braille. Information about the elections was published in plain language and sign language.
A mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) assessed the Finnish parliamentary elections in April 2011. The report on the work of the mission and its observations was published in July 2011. Overall, the mission considered that the elections were administered professionally. The mission also commended the high level of stakeholder confidence, but found some room for improvement, as well. The report includes one recommendation concerning voters with disabilities: ”Efforts should be increased to fully enable voters with disabilities in their right to a secret vote as per the OSCE Copenhagen Document and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.” Finland will observe this recommendation in its future work to develop the elections.
Measures in different sectors of administration
The Ministry of Finance has published a guide intended to all ministries for preparing strategies for non-governmental organisations (”Älä edistä kuulemista näön vuoksi – Näin teen kansalaisjärjestöstrategian” ("Do not promote hearing for the sake of appearances – How to prepare a strategy for non-governmental organisations"), Publications of the Ministry of Finance 39/2008). In a decision in principle taken after the completion of the Citizen Participation Policy Programme in March 2007, the Government determined that the position of NGOs would be included in the sectoral strategies of all ministries and that the strategies would be kept up to date in cooperation with NGOs. In 2005 and 2007 the Ministry of Finance studied by inquiries how the ministries had implemented the principles common to all administration regarding the hearing of citizens. The ministries reported, among other things, that hearing and inclusion were an integral part of all preparatory work. However, this is still largely untrue for measures taken in practice, and only about half of all ministries have adopted some kind of a strategy for non-governmental organisations. The purpose of this planning model was to help the ministries either to prepare an NGO strategy or to revise their existing NGO strategies and also to support the implementation of such strategies. The guide also pays attention to the inclusion of special groups, e.g. persons with disabilities, in the strategies.
A working group set up in 2005 by the Ministry of the Interior prepared a strategy for 2006-2007 to increase the opportunities of citizens to participate and have an influence in the activities of the Ministry. The strategy defines the measures to be taken and the actors designated for implementing them. When preparing general affairs, authorities of administration hear citizens, non-governmental organisations, such as disability organisations, or other citizen groups as from the planning stage. The hearing is intended to safeguard the opportunities of citizens to participate and influence and to provide the authorities with expert information and empirical information. In extensive and significant projects all the major interest groups are represented.
For implementing the strategy the Ministry of the Interior has, for example, increased the training of officials, the provision of information, web communications and direct NGO contacts regarding the hearing and inclusion of citizens, and improved the opportunities to monitor the preparation of projects.
Transport and communication policy
According to the Government Programme, in the preparation of legislation relating to transport and any transport projects, attention will be paid to accessibility and the impact of the activities on various population groups and equality, especially with regard to older people, children and people with disabilities.
In the transport sector, Finland has taken measures to harmonise the national legislation with the technical legislation (buses, railway materiel) of the other EU Member States.
At national level especially taxi transports are regulated by a number of stipulations to promote in practice the movement of persons with disabilities. The stipulations concern the training of taxi drivers and taxi entrepreneurs (knowledge and skills related to persons with disabilities), the issue of taxi licences (the licensing authorities must ensure a sufficient number of taxis suitable for persons with disabilities), taxi vehicles (separate quotas and technical specifications apply to accessible taxis and taxis for persons with disabilities) and transport pricing (additional charges for assistance). The act on public transports (869/2009) contains provisions e.g. on an obligatory quality promise of bus entrepreneurs (incl. bus vehicles and services) and an obligation to define the regional standard of services.
The Government promotes the rights of persons with disabilities to participate in society also by means of the communications policy adopted in the Government Programme. The purpose is to guarantee all citizens barrier-free participation in the information society and the digital world regardless of their income level, health, financial status or place of residence. Electronic services that are important societally and commercially and for the functioning of everyday life must be accessible in order to be available also to persons with disabilities and aged persons.
After the reform of the Communications
Market Act, which took effect on 25 May 2011, all users of communications services, including persons with disabilities, must be guaranteed a basic level of communications services, which belong to universal services. This means that future universal service subscriptions must enable all users, including persons with disabilities, to use emergency services, to make and receive telephone calls in their home country and abroad, and to use other conventional telephone services.
The decree on voice and text services in television programmes, which entered force on 1 July 2011, improves the access of especially persons with visual and hearing impairments, but also others, to pluralistic communications. The decree lays down provisions on annually growing percentages of voice and text services to be provided during hours of broadcasting in Finnish or Swedish. The decree applies both to programmes broadcast as public services (the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE) and to those broadcast under national broadcasting licences (channels MTV3, Nelonen and SuomiTV).
The National Council on Disability
The National Council on Disability, established in 1986, and disability organisations give statements, make proposals and participate in hearings e.g. at Parliament. Local disability councils have similar tasks in influencing policies in municipalities.
Disability NGOs have formed their own co-operation and umbrella structures, including the Finnish Disability Forum, which is a member of the European Disability Forum. The 28 member organisations of the Finnish Disability Forum represent over 320,000 persons with disabilities or with long-term illnesses.
Inclusion in municipalities
For persons with disabilities, too, municipal self-government is of essential importance in terms of the realisation of democracy. Section 121 of the Finnish Constitution provides that the administration of municipalities must be based on the self-government of their residents. According to section 14 of the Constitution the public authorities must promote the opportunities for the individual to participate in societal activity and to influence the decisions that concern him or her. Thus, the provision expresses the principle that a democratic society must not limit an individual's opportunities to influence the development of society and the living environment only to the right to vote in elections.
For instance, section 27 of the Local Government Act (365/1995) lists examples of means by which residents may participate in the activities of their municipality and influence them. According to the provision, such participation and influence can be furthered e.g. by electing representatives of service users to municipal organs, by providing information about local affairs and holding hearings, by finding out residents’ opinions before taking decisions and by providing for cooperation in managing the local authority’s functions.
Koottu kuva
For supporting participation in societal activity, different groups of municipal residents have set up cooperation bodies to increase consideration for these groups in municipal decision-making. Examples include local councils on disability and the elderly. A council on disability is an expert organ and channel of influence for persons with disabilities, set up voluntarily by a municipality. The activities of councils on disability are regulated by the Services and Assistance for the Disabled Act (380/1987). There are about 170 municipal councils on disability in Finland. Their task is to promote and monitor the activities in municipal administration in different fields from the perspective of persons with disabilities. By law, the councils may submit initiatives and proposals and issue opinions on matters of importance to the life and coping of persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities and their family members and organisations must have a sufficient representation in the councils. A number of municipalities may set up a joint council on disability together. The councils constitute cooperation forums for authorities, disability organisations, persons with disabilities and their family members. In some municipalities, the council on disability and the council on the elderly cooperate closely. The executive boards of some municipalities and cities have reserved separate budget appropriations for the local councils on disability. These councils often have representatives especially of persons with physical and mental disabilities, and next most frequently of persons suffering from respiratory diseases, persons with visual and hearing impairments, rheumatic persons and disabled soldiers. Some councils also have representation of persons with heart diseases, diabetics, epileptics and aphasia patients. A future challenge is to include more persons with mental disabilities and more representatives of small disability groups. The role of councils on disability is emphasised especially in small municipalities, where disability organisations have only few activities or none at all.
Personal assistants and transportation services required by the Services and Assistance for the Disabled Act enable persons with disabilities to participate in public life. Persons with severe disabilities who fulfil the criteria laid down in the legislation have the right to be granted a personal assistant for daily activities, work and studies, hobbies, participation in society and social interaction. Also sign language interpretation and assistive devices, which are granted to those in need, can help to overcome barriers in communication and participation.
People with disabilities mainly participate in non disability-specific issues, including issues of general public concern, through disability organisations or other organisations of civil society. The use of social media has also increased the opportunities for disabled persons to participate in society.
eServices and eDemocracy project (SADe)
The purpose of the eServices and eDemocracy project (SADe) is to enable citizens and businesses to use all essential services electronically by the end of the project. The SADe project includes seven electronic service packages, which will also promote the participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life.
The participation platform service package enables and facilitates the democratic activation of citizens, thus providing tools for solving the questions in paragraphs 2-6, in particular. The project creates an electronic process for citizens' and municipal residents' initiatives, introduces an inquiry and opinion service, permits electronic voting in consultative referenda, facilitates collecting relevant data and providing information on it, introduces a service for monitoring the work of members of parliament and provides uniform tools for persons in positions of trust. The project is intended to facilitate interaction between citizens and authorities and to improve the opportunities of citizens to participate in society. For this purpose the tools and processes for web-based participation will be modernised to constitute a "toolbox" which is easy to use for citizens, organisations and authorities and easy to include in their activities.
The project contains six other service packages, four of which directly contribute to enabling persons with disabilities to participate in public life in different sectors:
Service package for students: produces a comprehensive range of services that support studying and applying for studies, learning and career planning, by observing the principle of lifelong learning.
Service package for the built environment and housing: facilitates e.g. the processes for applying for a building permit for one's own plot.
Service package for employers: facilitates the fulfilment of employers' obligations electronically.
Service package for starting a business: facilitates the starting up and further development of a business, e.g. by means of electronic application processes.
The service packages for individual health and planning of citizens' well-being services will not directly increase the participation of persons with disabilities in public life but will facilitate the management of their health issues in the future.
In addition to the service packages, the project includes support services for electronic transactions, e.g. a reform of the Suomi.fi and Enterprise Finland portals, citizen's account, a service platform for electronic transactions of public administration, general counselling services for citizens and distance services. For instance the last stage of the project on distance services will make it possible to use authorities' services at one's home. All these support services facilitate contacts with authorities, and electronic services permit persons with disabilities to manage their affairs more independently in a comprehensive manner.